Racial and gender disparities are prevalent in the criminal justice system, but the sources of these disparities remain largely unknown. This paper investigates whether judge political affiliation contributes to these disparities using data on over 500,000 federal defendants linked to sentencing judge. Exploiting random case assignment, we find that Republican appointed judges sentence black de...

The current research details interviews with 50 victims and 50 defendants who participated in a specialized criminal domestic violence court in Lexington County, South Carolina. These victims and defendants indicated satisfaction with their court experiences, thought the process allowed them to voice their views, felt they were treated with respect, and were generally satisfied with the outcome...

The present study utilizes data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics to examine the effectiveness of public defenders in Florida to assess whether the case outcomes of defendants with public defenders are similar to the case outcomes of defendants with retained attorneys, controlling for legally-relevant variables. Methods: The present study utilizes both logistic and OLS regression analysis t...

This study examined the prediction of outcome in a sample of defendants hospitalized for treatment of incompetency. Defendants' demographic characteristics and scores on 18 scales of the Computer-Assisted Determination of Competency to Proceed instrument (CADCOMP) were used to predict competency restoration and length of stay (LOS). During the period of study, almost 90 percent of the defendant...

Two experiments with male subjects were conducted to investigate the plea bargaining process. Experiment 1 used a role-playing procedure to identify variables that affect the acceptance of a plea bargain. Eighteen percent of the subjects playing the role of innocent defendants accepted the plea bargain, whereas 83% of the guilty defendants accepted. Two other main effects revealed that defendan...

Data were examined from an archival sample of Competency to Stand Trial (CST) reports of 200 consecutive New York City pre-trial defendants evaluated over a five-month period. Approximately a fourth of defendants in the present study were immigrants; many required the assistance of interpreters. The examiners conducting the CST evaluation diagnosed approximately half of the defendants with a pr...

Following a mortality salience or control prime, Black, Hispanic, and White college students read a murder/carjacking or auto theft trial transcript in which the defendant belonged to their racial/ethnic group or one of the others. Black and Hispanic, but not White, mock-jurors discriminated, more frequently judging outgroup defendants guilty. Mortality salience affected judgments about outgrou...

Previous research has suggested that the racial composition of a jury plays a role in the likelihood of conviction of certain defendants. In general, it has been supported that White jury members are more likely to vote to convict Black defendants, while Black jury members are more likely to vote to acquit Black defendants. Prior research has suffered from flaws that could possibly affect these...

While the United States Supreme Court's Jackson v. Indiana decision and most state statutes mandate determinations of incompetent defendants' restoration probabilities, courts and forensic clinicians continue to lack empirical evidence to guide these determinations and do not yet have a consensus regarding whether and under what circumstances incompetent defendants are restorable. The evidence ...

A discount in sentencing quantum is routinely provided to defendants who plead guilty to offences. This article examines the reasons for such a discount, and argues that there is little appropriate justification; and further that it creates, in effect, a penalty for defendants who exercise their right to trial. It is further argued that the existence of such a discount can provide an inappropri...